March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

ANKARA, March 10: Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Monday he will step down to make way for the ruling party leader Tayyip Erdogan, a move that may trigger a fresh bid to seek approval for US forces to attack Iraq from Turkey.

Erdogan won a by-election on Sunday which propelled him from the sidelines of politics towards the prime minister’s office he has long coveted. He could take over as early as this week after taking his oath as a parliamentary deputy.

In last November’s general election Erdogan led the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to a sweeping victory, but he had been banned from public office until recently because of a 1998 conviction for Islamist sedition.

“I will go to the president and open the way for a new government to be formed after he (Erdogan) takes the oath in parliament,” Gul told reporters after talks with Erdogan.

Under Turkish constitutional procedure, Gul must inform President Ahmet Necdet Sezer that he is stepping down. Sezer would then appoint Erdogan to form a new cabinet and win a vote of confidence, something that should not pose a challenge.

His first days in office will be dominated by the issue of a looming US-led war against Iraq. Erdogan indicated on Sunday it may be some days before he asks parliament to reconsider a request from key NATO ally Washington to deploy up to 62,000 troops on Turkish soil in preparation for a war.

“It’s difficult to talk about timing. There’s the second UN resolution, there’s the process of forming a government. We have to evaluate these and then decide,” Erdogan told CNN Turk in the first televised interview following his by-election win.

There is widespread opposition to a war in Muslim Turkey. Parliament narrowly rejected the motion on March 1, upsetting US military plans and jeopardising up to $30 billion in grants and loan guarantees from the United States.

Washington says it may abandon a “northern front” from Turkey and the aid if Ankara does not swiftly approve its plans.

CLARIFICATION SOUGHT: Erdogan said Washington must clarify its plans for Iraq before he can seek approval for the US troop deployment.

He said Ankara wanted assurances the interests of Turkmen ethnic kin in Iraq would be preserved and that Turkey would have a say in what happens to Iraq during and after a war.

“There are some steps the US must take. What role will Turkey play in northern Iraq?...We have to clear this up.”

Ankara fears the establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq could rekindle a separatist Kurdish rebellion on its own territory. The military has sought a role for its own troops to block Kurdish efforts at statehood as well as to prevent a flood of refugees from entering Turkey.

While the government considers whether to present a second motion, there were fresh signs of preparations for possible war.

As many as 3,000 Turkish soldiers and at least 20 armoured vehicles at the weekend moved across the border into northern Iraq, a military source in eastern Turkey told Reuters.

“The Turkish armed forces are continuing to deploy to Turkey’s border with Iraq. At this time around 50,000 troops have been sent to the border. The deployment will continue.”

These troops would cross into Iraq if war breaks out, he said. He declined to say how many soldiers were already there.

Separately, a convoy of some 40 to 50 vehicles loaded with US military equipment left the port of Iskenderun during the morning and headed east towards a region near the Iraqi border.

Some US troops are already in Turkey under an earlier accord allowing the United States to modernise air bases and ports. A Turkish newspaper on Monday reported tensions between those soldiers and their Turkish counterparts.

The Hurriyet daily said a Turkish officer halted US troops dressed in civilian clothes as they tried to leave Iskenderun port with their guns. The US soldiers were forced to the ground, searched and their weapons handed over, the paper said.

The US embassy in Ankara said the incident as described in Hurriyet “did not take place”.

The UN Security Council may vote early this week on a new resolution giving Iraq until the middle of this month to make a full declaration about biological, chemical and nuclear arms Washington and London accuse President Saddam Hussein of harbouring. An attack could be launched soon after that.

Erdogan must also deal with an impasse on the divided island of Cyprus, where Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash opposes a deal on a UN peace plan ahead of the island’s accession to the European Union. Erdogan’s actions will be seen as key to Turkey’s own ambitions to join the EU.—Reuters